Overview
Introduction
Compulsory third party (CTP) insurance in Queensland provides financial protection for motorists in the event of a motor vehicle crash. It also delivers fair and timely access to rehabilitation for people who are injured. It is conveniently bundled with vehicle registration to ensure that all registered Queensland motorists receive this important protection.
The Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) regulates CTP insurance in Queensland to ensure it meets these objectives. This year, MAIC continues to review and improve our adherence to our core objectives. Read on to learn more.
Highlights from 2021-2022
During the 2021–22 financial year, we:
- continued to improve the claims experience for people who are injured and improving efficiency for insurers, lawyers and other stakeholders
- explored opportunities to improve First Peoples’ awareness of road safety and CTP insurance
- maintained our investment in research and activities that reduce the incidence and effects of road trauma
- enhanced collaboration between the CTP insurance scheme and National Injury Insurance Scheme, Queensland (NIISQ)
- continued claim farming investigations and commenced a prosecution for various alleged claim farming offences
- collaborated with the Legal Services Commission and Office of Industrial Relations in relation to the claim farming reforms under the Personal Injury Proceedings Act 2001 and Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003
- became a member of the Personal Injury Education Foundation (PIEF)
- completed claimant survey, and identified action planning as part of results.
On the horizon
In the year ahead, we will:
- progress into the next phase in the innovation space, including looking for opportunities to improve digitisation of the Notice of Accident Claim form
- build on our membership with PIEF to establish an accredited program for CTP claims managers
- continue to build on the best of both strategy for the CTP insurance scheme and National Injury Insurance Scheme Queensland (NIISQ)
- continue to support and develop our team to achieve amazing outcomes.
Stay in the loop
Explore our graphs below to learn more about our scheme’s performance.
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Affordability
Delivering the second-lowest CTP insurance premiums in Australia
Affordability level
2021-22 data shows that CTP insurance premiums remained consistent to offer stable and affordable insurance to Queensland motorists.
CTP premium breakdown
The overall CTP insurance premium comprises levies and a fee that fund services for people who are injured in motor vehicle crashes. It also includes an insurer’s premium that is used to meet the expected costs of claims, as well as insurer expenses and profits for administering claims.
Insurer market share
The market for CTP insurance in Queensland has four operators: Suncorp, Allianz, QBE and RACQ. The market has remained quite stable, with no specific notable changes by any individual insurer.
New registrations through motor dealers
Motorists select their CTP insurer when they purchase a new or used vehicle through the motor dealer.
Number of motorists switching insurers
While the number of motorists that are actively comparing and choosing their CTP insurer has increased in the past several years, it is still a small proportion of the overall number of motorists.
motorists switched insurers in the last month.
Nominations to switch insurer
Some motorists elect to switch insurers during the term of their policies or when their policies are due for renewal. There has been an ongoing trend in motorists switching away from Allianz and QBE and moving to RACQ or Suncorp.
Efficiency
Balancing claimant benefits with scheme delivery costs
The efficiency of a CTP insurance scheme can be judged by how well insurer delivery costs are controlled while maximising the amount paid to benefit the person who was injured. We consider a minimum benchmark for our privately-underwritten scheme is for 60 per cent of CTP insurance premiums to be delivered as claimant benefits.
This year, the claimant benefit increased by 6 per cent compared to the previous 5-year average and reached a new high of 71 per cent. Correspondingly, delivery costs have further reduced by 6 per cent to a new low level of 29 per cent. We continue to see the increase in claimant benefit and decrease in delivery cost post the 2016 scheme review, mainly due to measures implemented to address persistently high insurer profits.
Ensuring timely resolution of claims
Our legislation requires insurers to deal with claims as quickly as possible, with insurers determining liability within 6 months of receiving a compliant claim. We continue to see a high level of timely resolution consistently achieving over 99 per cent. This data indicates that insurers and lawyers continue to work constructively together to resolve claims quickly.
of claims met this requirement in the last 12 months.*
Legally-represented claimants – Average claim duration (months)
We continue to monitor insurers’ legislative compliance and claims management practices, including claim durations and stages of settlement. Where variations exist between insurers, we are analysing the data and consulting with insurers to understand the reasons behind it. The duration of a claim can be influenced by injury severity, circumstances around liability, evidence gathering, and claims management approach.
Recent data show that insurers are settling older claims that tend to have a higher severity in injuries. This is causing the average claim duration to increase due to the length of time required to finalise these older and more complex claims.
Direct claimants – Average claim duration (months)
People who lodge claims directly with an insurer tend to experience shorter claim durations than people who lodge claims through legal representatives. This may be because people often seek legal assistance when their claim is more complex.
Claims settled before, during or after compulsory conference (CC) by insurer
Some claims involve a compulsory conference (CC), or meeting, being held between parties to resolve the claim. When negotiations at a compulsory conference are unsuccessful, claims may progress to court proceedings. Many claims are settled without the parties needing to hold a compulsory conference, some are settled at or within 14 days of compulsory conference, and very few claims proceed to court.
The data shows that the proportion of claims settling prior to CC has decreased over the recent years. We are continuing to monitor the change in proportion of settled claims.
Fairness
Facilitating fair and timely access to compensation and rehabilitation
Total payments by heads of damage for finalised claims
In Queensland, CTP insurance enables people who are injured in vehicle crashes through no fault of their own to claim fair and timely compensation and access rehabilitation. The compensation paid to the person who was injured depends on the extent of their injuries resulting from the vehicle crash and how these injuries affect their work and social functioning.
In 2021–22, there has been an increase in average economic loss compensation payments as a result of larger claims being settled from older accident years.
Number of new claims per quarter
Within the last two quarters, the Department of Transport and Main Roads data showed that traffic volume on Queensland roads is lower compared to its 2019 level. This is expected to be a contributing factor to the lower than expected number of new CTP insurance claims being lodged with insurers in the first half of 2022.
Proportion of claims added per quarter
In 2021–22, the proportion of claims added per quarter has remained consistent to the 2020-21 year. Noting that more than 77 per cent of people who lodge claims engaged Queensland law firms to represent them, while approximately 20 per cent of people lodged their claims directly to the CTP insurer. This applied to the claim lodgement stage, however some people may later choose to be legally represented during the course of their claim.
Number of claims added per quarter by severity
During 2021–22, claims added per quarter were comparatively lower in the first two quarters of 2022. Overall, we continue to see fewer claims being lodged after the car crash scamming reforms were introduced.
Nominal Defendant claims received by financial year
The Nominal Defendant ensures that people involved in crashes with unidentified or uninsured vehicles still receive fair and timely access to compensation and rehabilitation.
In 2021–22, the Nominal Defendant added 154 managed claims involving unidentified vehicles and 70 claims involving uninsured vehicles.
Claimants by role in accidents involving an unidentified vehicle
The Nominal Defendant manages claims for various types of people, ranging from cyclists to drivers to pedestrians. As per previous years, most claims were lodged by a driver.
For claims involving an unidentified vehicle, 42.4 per cent of claimants were drivers.
Responsiveness
Responding to many varied types of road users, crashes and traffic patterns
Queensland’s CTP insurance scheme supports a wide range of people with different ages, genders, roles in crashes and types of crashes.
Age groups of claimants by gender
In 2021–22 most claims were lodged by people aged between 26 and 35. The second-largest cohort of people lodging claims was people aged from 36 to 45.
Queensland crash claims by region
As per previous years, our data continues to show that more CTP insurance claims were lodged by people in metropolitan areas than regional areas, but regional crashes generally led to more severe injuries than metropolitan areas.
Number of crashes per time and day of week
The data continues to demonstrate that the majority of crashes occur between 3pm and 6pm on weekdays. The likely cause is higher traffic volumes at peak periods for road travel.
Percentage of serious crashes per time and day of week
Although fewer accidents occurred during the evening, the crashes that did occur were more likely to be more serious, particularly on weekends with the peak period being Saturdays between 12am and 3am.
Claim severity, role and crash details
Our data shows that majority of claims are of a minor severity, with 62.6 per cent of claims by drivers, and 54 per cent of the accidents occurring when vehicles are travelling in the same direction.
We continue to support initiatives led by the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Queensland Police Service to reduce distracted driving that can cause these types of collisions.
Injuries by body regions
From the period of 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2022, our data showed the largest proportion of claimants experienced spinal injuries (79.1 per cent). The majority of these injuries were reported as whiplash, while 1.18 per cent experienced severe spinal injuries.
While head injuries make up a smaller percentage (10.9 per cent) of reported accidents, the severity level relative to the injury is high (8.09 per cent). The thorax continues to remain the most likely part of the body to be seriously injured at 11.96 per cent.
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Number of registered vehicles by vehicle class
Vehicle classes continued to see a steady growth in the overall vehicle fleet from July 2021 to June 2022, with a growth of over 100,000.
Average road traffic flow, in comparison to corresponding months in 2019
Data sourced from the Department of Transport and Main Roads showed that the first quarter (January – March 2022) had a lower road traffic flow, which could be attributed to COVID-19 and the floods in Queensland during that period.
As reported last year, the historical trend in road usage has been used to understand the pattern that we see in claim numbers. We are continuing to observe and monitor any trends on CTP insurance claims.
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